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Land Development Ordinance
Overview
After a two year community-wide process, the New Braunfels City Council adopted Envision New Braunfels, the community’s Comprehensive Plan. Envision New Braunfels won the American Planning Association award for Best Comprehensive Plan in the State of Texas in 2018, due to its community-driven process, innovative outreach, and its broad approach beyond the City organization with goals for the business community, school districts, medical industry, non-profits, tourism industry and more!
In Envision New Braunfels, residents noted a desire for more walkable/neighborhood-scale development, connectivity for all modes, innovative housing types, discouraging sprawl, preservation of historic assets, and protection of natural resources. To properly achieve this, the City must update its development codes: the Zoning, Subdivision Platting, Historic Preservation, and Sign ordinances. The zoning and subdivision ordinances govern how property can be used including regulations such as building height, setbacks between properties and rights-of-way, what uses are permitted, how many parking spaces must be provided for various development types, landscaping, the procedures for subdividing property or undertaking a larger development project, etc. The historic preservation ordinance outlines standards for each of the City’s historic districts, and the sign ordinance includes rules for height and area of different types of commercial signs.
The last time the Zoning ordinance was comprehensively updated was 1987, the Platting and Historic Preservation ordinances were written in the 1990s, and the Sign ordinance was written in 2006. New modern tools need to be adopted to properly implement the residents’ vision as described in the Comprehensive Plan. A new user-friendly, graphics intensive unified development code project has begun: New Braunfels Land Development Ordinance (LDO). As with Envision New Braunfels, the LDO is a public, community-driven process, although more technical in nature. We invite the entire community to participate in the project!
Feedback
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Open House Feedback
Go here for community feedback from the latest Land Development Ordinance Open House.
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Feedback for Draft Installments
See the collected feedback so far on the drafts of each LDO installment.
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Project Participation Plan
Read the Project Participation Plan for the Land Development Ordinance.
Initial Survey Feedback
The initial survey to collect community feedback on priorities for the LDO rewrite garnered 761 responses. Thank you to every resident who took the time to respond, since your replies are an important component in developing a community-driven code for the built environment.
Resident concerns covered a broad array of topics, but some general themes were apparent.
- The rapid rate of growth in New Braunfels is a source of concern, since it threatens the character that initially draws people to New Braunfels. The regulations have struggled to keep pace with the City’s growth.
- There is a need for better protection of the historic buildings that contribute to the city’s unique character.
- There is a desire for more green space, and better protection of trees in the community.
- Rapid development is generating opposition to more development, particularly large increases in density on the periphery.
- The increase in traffic and congestion is a quality of life issue, with existing roads inadequate to handle increased demand. There is a lack of parking in and around downtown.
The detailed compilation of responses has thousands of comments, and runs to over 100 pages. Download a sample of survey responses reflective of the themes identified above.
Public Input
The land development ordinance update project started in November of 2021 with stakeholder interviews, meetings with the Citizens Advisory Committee and Technical Advisory Committee and an online survey. The initial survey to collect community feedback on priorities for the LDO rewrite garnered 761 responses. Thank you to every resident who took the time to respond, since your replies are an important component in developing a community-driven code for the built environment.
The project is anticipated to continue through 2024, and there will be multiple opportunities for public input during that timeframe. Below are the public meetings held thus far:
- April 6, 2022 – 6 – 9 p.m. at City Hall – City Council/Planning Commission Joint Workshop
- April 7, 2022 – 1 – 2:30 p.m. at City Hall – Citizens Advisory Committee Meeting
- April 7, 2022 – 4 – 7 p.m. at City Hall – Open House
- April 8, 2022 – 9:30 – 11 a.m. at City Hall – Technical Advisory Committee Meeting
- June 2, 2022 – 2:30 – 5 p.m. at City Hall – Development Community Input Meeting
- June 3, 2022 – 9 – 10:30 a.m. at City Hall – Historic Preservation Input Meeting
- October 18, 2022 – 8:30 a.m. – Downtown Board Meeting
- November 30, 2022 – 2:30 - 4 p.m. at City Hall - Citizens Advisory Committee Workshop
- November 30, 2022 – 6 - 8 p.m. at City Hall – Community Workshop
- December 1, 2022 – 9 - 11 a.m. at City Hall – Technical Advisory Committee Workshop
- March 22, 2023 – 4 p.m. at City Hall – Workforce Housing Advisory Committee
- May 16, 2023 – 8:30 a.m. at City Hall – Downtown Board Meeting
- September 26, 2023 – 5:30 p.m. at City Hall – Historic Landmark Commission Design Guidelines Workshop
- October 24, 2023 – 2 – 3:30 p.m. at City Hall– Technical Advisory Committee Workshop
- October 24, 2023 – 6 – 8 p.m. at City Hall – Public Open House
- October 25, 2023 – 9 – 10:30 a.m. at City Hall – Citizens Advisory Committee Workshop
- November 14, 2023 – 8:30 a.m. at City Hall – Downtown Board Meeting
- November 20, 2023 – 6 p.m. at City Hall – City Council Meeting, LDO Update
- December 14, 2023 - 3 p.m. at City Hall - landscaping and tree preservation meeting with NBU and Parks & Recreation
- December 18, 2023 - 1 p.m. at GBRA - One Water Working Group meeting, LDO update and discussion
- February 1, 2024 - 9 a.m. at City Hall - One Water Working Group meeting, LDO update and discussion
- April 4, 2024 - 9 a.m. at NBU Headquarters - One Water Working Group meeting, LDO update and discussion
- August 1, 2024 - 9 a.m. at Westside Library - One Water Working Group meeting, LDO update and discussion
- August 2024 - Individual Downtown Stakeholder Interviews regarding a form-based/performance-based zoning district for Downtown
- September 16, 2024 – 6 p.m. at City Hall – City Council Meeting, LDO Update
- November 8, 2024 - 8:30 a.m. at the Civic & Convention Center - Presentation and Q&A on the LDO at the International Right-of-Way Association Seminar
- December 3, 2024 - 4 p.m., EDF Investor's Council, LDO Update
- December 11, 2024 - Noon at Old City Hall on Castell Avenue - Downtown Presentation and Public Input meeting on special form-based zoning ideas for Downtown
- December 11, 2024 - 5:30 p.m. at Old City Hall on Castell Avenue - Downtown Presentation and Public Input meeting on special form-based zoning ideas for Downtown
- February 10, 2025 - 6 p.m. at City Hall - City Council Meeting, LDO update
- October 14, 2025 - 9 am, NBU Customer Solutions Center, Community Advisory Panel meeting, presentation on how the LDO relates to the Drought Contingency Plan
- October 20, 2025 - 5 pm, City Council Meeting, One Water annual update and how the LDO relates to One Water
- December 2, 2025 - 6 pm at City Hall, Planning Commission Meeting LDO update
Thank you to everyone who attended the latest open house to provide input on the development standards module. Check online to see feedback from attendees. The project public participation plan anticipates numerous opportunities for the community to participate in the project throughout its duration. The Plan describes:
- Objectives: What are the goals for seeking input on the project?
- Key audiences: Who are we hoping to hear from?
- Key messages: What do we want people to know about the project and its progress?
- Engagement activities: When are the anticipated opportunities to participate?
The Participation Plan is a starting point for guiding engagement throughout the project. It is posted to foster community resident awareness of how engagement for the project is envisioned at the outset. However, as the rewrite progresses, it can be revisited, changed, and updated to reflect evolving strategies and opportunities for public participation.
Resources
What is an LDO?
Land development ordinances are a set of regulations, standards, and tools that describe what can be built where in New Braunfels. This includes zoning, but also other ordinances affecting land development in the City, such as subdivision platting, historic preservation standards, and the requirements for signs. This update project will not only review and update the content of these ordinances, it will also combine them into one central document, with an internally consistent and logical organizational structure.
Why Update the LDO?
The City’s current land use regulations reflect the suburban nature of the area at the time they were adopted (1940) and revised (1960, 1987, and 2006). However, particularly since 2006, New Braunfels’ rapid rate of growth has highlighted the limitations of the regulations and outpaced the ability of periodic amendments to keep up with the changes occurring in and around the City.
In 2018, the City updated the Comprehensive Plan. The new plan, Envision New Braunfels, outlines a vision of the future shaped by our citizens. The plan lays the groundwork for future code changes to realize that vision, and the assessment of the current regulations performed at the beginning of this LDO project outlined a clear path forward for needed regulatory change. The assessment document identified:
- Ways in which the current regulations work well;
- Ways in which the current regulations do not work well or are unduly complicated;
- Which sections of the current regulations are inconsistent with the goals and objectives of adopted plans and policies of the City;
- Ways to integrate other ordinances in the Municipal Code – Signs, Subdivision, Historic Preservation -- to enhance consistency and usability through creation of an integrated land development ordinance;
- If updates are necessary to comply with the local, state, and federal laws;
- Ways to improve the development review procedures and streamline where appropriate; and
- Ways to improve the user-friendliness of the land use regulations.
The assessment includes a detailed annotated outline showing how a revised set of land use regulations could be organized and what content should be incorporated.
Code Assessment Report
A first important step in the LDO rewrite process is the Code Assessment Report. This Report is a detailed, section-by-section analysis of the code, incorporating input received during initial stakeholder interviews and feedback from the initial community resident survey. The report covers the current zoning, subdivision platting, sign, and historic preservation ordinances.
The Report addresses:
- Strengths and weaknesses of the existing ordinances related to specific topics;
- Options and alternatives for approaching issues identified in the code rewrite and
- A proposed new structure that combines zoning, subdivision platting, historic preservation, and sign ordinances into one integrated LDO.
The report allows the public, development stakeholders, elected and appointed officials, the Citizens Advisory Committee, and City staff the opportunity to review the overall structure of the proposed revisions before the actual code drafting begins, providing an early opportunity to make corrections or suggest other approaches before significant time and resources are invested in actual drafting.
Questions?
If you have a question or comment, please contact us at planning@newbraunfels.gov.